Rubio’s plan has garnered support from both parties in Washington, D.C. | Credit: Florida Watchdog

As Washington leaders rush to put together comprehensive immigration plans, traditionally partisan officials are putting differences aside to address the millions of illegal immigrants living in the country.

“There’s always political ramifications to everything we do or fail to do, but my motivation on immigration is not the politics of it,” Sen. Marco Rubio told Florida Watchdog last week. “My motivation is to solve a serious problem that our country faces, my community faces, my state faces.”

The rising star of the GOP is seen as the most conservative voice calling for reform, despite his initial opposition to the DREAM Act, the failed Senate plan that would have legalized hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth enrolled in school or in the military.

The proposal offered by Rubio, though not yet in writing, would deport those who have committed serious or violent crimes.

Those without a criminal record would be subject to a background check, hours of community service, fines and back taxes. Then they would be offered a temporary visa while they complete the paperwork for a green card.

“I define amnesty as a special pathway to citizenship. Our plan is not that,” said Rubio.

“After you’re in that status for a significant, but not unreasonable, period of time, and after we have made significant progress in securing our borders, workplace enforcement and tracking the entry and exit of visas, then these individuals who have not violated the conditions of that process will be allowed to get in line through the regular immigration process, just like anybody else, and apply for a green card,” he added. “The good news for them is that they won’t have to leave the country while they’re waiting. They’ll be here legally working.”

Credit: Florida Watchdog

He also stressed that those seeking to become legal immigrants would not be eligible for social benefis during that time.

And his plan seems to line up with that of his colleagues across the aisle.

“Our plan is not amnesty,” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat.

Villaraigosa proposes strengthening the borders, having immigrants pay back taxes, pass a background check, learn English and follow the path to citizenship. He would also eliminate the controversial immigration enforcement program known as Safe Communities, which allows local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law.

“I’m working with a group of eight senators, bipartisan, who realize the time is now, and my hope is that both parties will work together to fix this broken immigration system,” he told US News on Wednesday.

Though there is not yet a concrete immigration plan in the House or Senate, both Rubio and Villaraigosa remain confident that the political parties will come together.

“I think there is a strong national consensus on this position,” Rubio told Florida Watchdog. “It’s our job to write laws and to pass them. My hope for the president is we’re going to find out if the White House is serious about doing something real on this. If they are, then they’ll line up behind common-sense efforts like we’re talking about that have so far garnered support across the political spectrum.

“It is not just to deal with people who are here illegally, but to modernize the legal immigration system and strengthen current laws,” he said.

During President Barack Obama‘s first term, more than 1.4 million illegal immigrants have been deported from the U.S.

Ediberto Román, professor of law at Florida International University, said the consensus on immigration reform exists because of the efforts of activists known as “dreamers,” young students intent on immigration reform, as well as the important Hispanic influence in the 2012 elections.

“We’ll see what they do because it is a political issue,” Román told Florida Watchdog.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 71 percent of Hispanics across the country voted for Obama in the 2012 election.

Román, author of the book "The Other American Colonies: An International and Constitutional Law Examination of the United States’ Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Island Conquests," said both parties want to have Hispanic support, especially after seeing how it helped Democratic gains during the November election.

“I see a major shift toward the Republican Party. For the first time in history, we see both parties supporting the same reform on this issue,” he said. “The party that finds the solution will be entitled to get majority support from Hispanics.”

Comments (4)

forumsforjustice

2:09AM JAN 27TH 2013

Immigration Reform... by all means... It's high time that, we, the people, demand that our federal laws against illegal immigration, are enforced... Mandate, and ENFORCE, E-Verify, for all jobs, and any entitlement. nothing more, nothing less...

Rubio has turned out to be another progressive RINO Trojan horse a la the fake hero John McCain, prissy Lindsey Graham, Jeff “the flake” Flake, et al. I didn't see any "grant another amnesty to a bunch of border-jumping, colonizing ’no habla Englis’ dirtbags" box to check on the ballot. Did I miss something? What I did see were a bunch of ignorant barnacles re-electing the treasonous socialist scumbag in the White House because of all the freebies he's been doling out at our expense for the last 4 years. If the GOP nitwits get behind an amnesty they are finished because parasitic invaders will never vote for them and neither will patriotic conservatives. I say build a wall and deport every last one of those parasitic illegal alien miscreants.

“When people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” Benjamin Franklin.

You are spot on. Amazing that Republicans think that imported Democrats and undocumented Democrats will discover their inner Republican if the GOP just caves to their demands. Minority welfare recipients are not going to suddenly discover that they have been Republicans all along and just didn't know it. Pandering to people who in the end are going to vote Democratic anyway is a losing plan.

I would like more details on that. If they file back tax returns, how many would get refunds instead of paying in due to the child tax credits? How many have already paid in for social security and Medicare etc. that would apply to their credits and how many would qualify to start drawing on those benefits? 10 years is all you need to apply for SS or SS Disability, isn't it?